At least eight people were killed and thousands remained without power Sunday as rainfall and floodwaters inundated Kentucky.
A 7-year-old girl and her mother were killed when their vehicle encountered floodwaters in Hart County in southern Kentucky, local CBS affiliate WNKY reported. The victims have not been publicly identified and authorities were still working to recover the mother’s body on Sunday.
Elsewhere in Hart County, an unidentified adult male was killed in a vehicle accident related to the flooding, Gov. Andy Beshear said.
In southeastern Clay County, a 73-year-old man died after driving into floodwaters and then attempting to escape his vehicle. The body of Donald Keith Nicholson was found several hundred feet from his truck, the Manchester Enterprise reported.
“This is the search and rescue phase,” Beshear said Sunday at a press conference. “This emergency phase we’re in is going to last at least a couple more days.”
More than 1,000 people were rescued by first responders throughout the state, Beshear said. In far eastern Pike County, two men were killed due to the flooding and hundreds more were rescued. According to Beshear, Pike County, which borders Virginia and West Virginia, saw the worst of the storm.
Two more people were killed south of Louisville, one woman in Washington County and an unidentified person in Nelson County, Beshear said.
“We believe this number’s gonna grow,” the governor said, encouraging people to stay off the roads, as several of the deaths occurred because people were driving in and near floodwaters.
Areas throughout the state received 3 to 6 inches of rain on Saturday on top of multiple inches that had fallen in previous days, according to the National Weather Service. While rainfall totals were highest in the southern and western portions of the state, waters rose fastest in the mountainous eastern counties.
“The biggest challenge of this event is it’s everywhere,” Beshear said. “Flooding is still possible in many, many rivers all across our state.”
Multiple deadly severe weather events have impacted Kentucky in recent years. At least 45 people were killed when devastating floods struck eastern Kentucky in July 2022 and at least 80 people were killed when tornadoes rolled across western Kentucky in December 2021.
President Trump approved disaster relief funds for the state and FEMA personnel arrived in Kentucky on Sunday, according to Beshear. The state’s former emergency leader, Jeremy Slinker, now works at FEMA and will be leading the response, the governor said.
